If you ask anyone outside of Germany, bar the fanatics of Bundesliga history, about a club called SC Preußen Münster, they would probably never have heard of such a club before. And why would they? The headlines are dominated by Bayern Munich, the all-conquering juggernaut, and Borussia Dortmund, the club everyone has a healthy admiration and respect for due to their giant-killing nature and success despite the odds being stacked against them.
However, in the far less glamorous reaches of the German football hierarchy, Die Adler, or The Eagles, reside in 3.Liga. Perpetually sitting in mid-table, the club isn't in any real danger of relegation, while on the flip side also being no real threat to gaining promotion. So why am I writing a piece on a insignificant middle-of-the-road side playing in a league alongside the youth development sides of Borussia Dortmund and VfB Stuttgart?
The answer is that SC Preußen Münster is one of the founding members of the Bundesliga. True, they only played in the top division for one fleeting season, becoming the only side in Germany with this dubious honor, but they are forever written into the annals of history as one of the eighteen original trailblazers who contested the very first Bundesliga championship all those years ago.
Preußen Münster was founded under it's current name in 1921, based in the North-Rhine Westphalia region. A classic example of an up-and-down team, the history of Die Adler is littered with numerous relegations and a German Championship final appearance. The more illustrious clubs of Borussia Dortmund, Armenia Bielefeld, VfL Osnabrück and FC Twente are all within fifty miles of the city of Münster, putting this city in a hotbed of football activity. In 1928, the club had progressed to the point where they were playing Second Division football, before German football was re-organized into sixteen top-tier leagues under the Third Reich. However, Preußen Münster were not extremely successful under this new structure, experiencing relegation twice before the end of World War II.
However, by the time that the 1948-1949 Oberliga West got underway, Die Adler had clawed themselves back into reasonable competition, by becoming the first team in German football to build a team by virtue of purchasing players. This, predictably, caused some controversy, and many purists saw the club as not being a pure sporting organization. However, the success of Preußen Münster quickly sheparded in an age where professionalism was becoming an accepted part of football. Die Adler managed to reach the 1951 German finals, meeting 1.FC Kaiserslautern, who at the time were led by the legendary Fritz Walter. Even though Die Adler fell in Berlin, where the final was staged, there was to be no shame as the quality of opposition was of an incredibly high standard, as would later be apparent in the Miracle Of Bern in 1954, when a Germany side well stocked with players from Die Roten Teufel won the FIFA World Cup.
For the next decade, Preußen Münster would play in the incredibly competitive Oberliga West - While they did not win any silverware in this time, their strong performances and competitiveness would stand them in good stead when the inaugural line-up for the first ever Bundesliga season in 1963 was decided upon. Their first game was to be against the highy regarded Hamburger SV side which was lead by Uwe Seeler in front of a capacity crowd at the Preußenstadion. A fine draw ensued for Die Adler, with the quality of opposition taken into consideration.
The Eagles lost their first away match in the Bundesliga to Eintracht Braunschweig, but managed to get back on track with a win over Meidemricher SV (Currently known as MSV Duisberg). Things continued to go smoothly, as Preußen Münster would only lose one of their first six games in the Bundesliga, finding themselves in 7th spot on the table, with no apparent relegation threat. However, things quickly started going pear-shaped as the losses started racking up thanks to a porous defense and sterile strike force. League top-scorer Uwe Seeler finished on 30 goals, only four less that Die Adler managed as a whole over the season, relegating the club to the second division after finishing dead last in the first Bundesliga season of many to come.
Other than 1963-1964, Preußen Münster never managed to reach the top flight of German football, making them the only one of the eighteen initial entrants into the Bundesliga to have spent only a solitary season at the very top. Die Adler very nearly disappeared into the amateur mediocrity before winning the 1994 German Amateur Championship, finding their way back into the DFB football-hierarchy and eventually climbing all the way to the 3.Liga, where they remain to this day.
Even though they might not have defined an era like Borussia Mönchengladbach, conquered everything in sight like Bayern Munich or become an institution like Hamburger SV, Die Adler are an irreplaceable part of Bundesliga history.